Area's Best Key Lime Pie Is Homemade

DINING CHOW HOUND

April 20, 1990|By Scott Joseph, Sentinel Restaurant Critic

Today was the day I was going to tell you where to get the best Key lime pie in Central Florida. You'll have to settle for second best.

A while back, I asked for nominations from among the plethora of limey pies served in area restaurants. I also wanted to get to the bottom of the issue, so to speak, and find out once and for all which was best: graham-cracker crust or pastry crust. And what about the topping? Meringue or whipped cream?

A peck of people wrote in, and the field was narrowed to eight. I nominated another that hadn't been suggested by anyone else.

The latter is the pie at Shooters, the waterfront cafe that opened recently on Lake Fairview in Orlando. When I dined at Shooters, on three separate occasions, I found the food lacking in quality. But I did like the Key lime pie - thus, my nomination.

This competition was conducted differently from other Chow Hound searches. In the past, I have toddled off to each restaurant to sample the whatever-it-was we were searching for. This time I ordered in - the pies were collected from the restaurants (in one case, a bakery) and brought to the newspaper offices where a panel of tasters had convened.

The pies were assigned numbers so the tasters wouldn't know where they came from. As the panel members paneled, I wrote down their comments and tabulated their votes.

The remarks ranged from ''a wonderful consistency with a delightful tartness and superior crust'' to ''Ick!'' (Sometimes it's difficult to verbalize.)

When all was tallied, Shooters came out ahead - by more than 2-to-1. Shooters' pie has a graham-cracker crust - as did seven of the other nominees. So that settles that argument.

As for the topping - zilch. Neither meringue nor whipped cream, just a few graham- cracker crumblings around the edges. Perfect.

So it's at this point that I should say Shooters has the best Key lime pie in Central Florida. However, the pie plot thickens. . . .

I called Shooters to ask if I might print the recipe for its pie. Management was more than happy to share - but the recipe Shooters uses yields 16 pies. Because it is possible to have too much of a good thing, the recipe was cut down to two pies.

Simply dividing a recipe, however, doesn't always work. So I took the reduced recipe to the Chow Hound Test Kitchen (my house) and tried it.

As it turns out, Shooters doesn't make the best Key lime pie in Central Florida. I do. It's so tangy and tart that I call it Key Lime Love Pie: One bite makes you pucker up. Look, I'm trying to be humble about this, but I doubt I'll be ordering Key lime pie in restaurants anymore. When it comes time for dessert, I'll just tell the waiter I brought my own.

Here's the recipe Shooters gave me, unwittingly denying itself the title. Give it a try, and if it doesn't turn out right, stop by Shooters and taste the second best Key lime pie in Central Florida:

28 oz. sweetened condensed milk 4 egg yolks 2 Key limes (or one regular lime, but try to get one that isn't too ripe so it'll be good and tart) 10 oz. fresh Key lime juice (bottled is fine) 2 graham-cracker pie crusts Graham-cracker crumbs Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grate about 1/2 tsp. of the fresh lime rind and set aside. In a mixing bowl, whip egg yolks on medium speed for 1 minute. Add milk and whip 3 minutes. Add the grated rind and squeeze the juice from the fresh limes into the mixture (making sure not to get seeds in it). Whip 2 more minutes. Add Key lime juice and whip an additional 3 minutes.

Pour the mixture into the pie shells and crumble graham cracker around the edges. Bake for 7 minutes; refrigerate at least two hours before serving.

By the way, the second most votes went to the Oviedo Inn's pie, which was a little warm by the time it got to downtown Orlando but pretty good nonetheless.

Also in the running were pies from the Peabody Hotel's B-Line Diner, the Delta Court of Flags' Center Court Cafe (the only nominee with green food coloring), Charlie's Gourmet Pastries, Village Inn, Barney's Steak and Seafood (which buys its pies from Charlie's), A1A West and Jordan's Grove.

One of the above printed fliers asking patrons to nominate its pie for the Chow Hound search. I received only one of those fliers, and the pie got no votes from the panel.

So much for ballot stuffing.

A note for Earth Day. With all the talk you've been hearing, and will hear, about conservation and recycling, don't forget what can be done when eating out. Don't waste food - ask if half portions are available and take home what you don't eat. And insist that restaurants stop using foam food containers for leftovers. Ozone-damaging materials are used in their production.